A Grip on Sports: Though he wasn’t a finalist for the Bob Cousy Award, no college point guard plays more like the player it was named for than Gonzaga’s Ryan Nembhard
A GRIP ON SPORTS • Think about the great point guards in the history of basketball. John Stockton, of course. Magic Johnson too. Oscar Robertson has to be on the list. Steve Nash earned his way. And Bob Cousy, who was the first great orchestra master the position ever produced.
•••••••
• Why mention Cousy, who played so long ago one could say it was pre-meteor, the TV one that wiped his era of dinosaurs from our memory? Mainly because the award given every season for the best collegiate point guard has his name on it. But does it still have his legacy behind it?
I’m not sure. Not after this season’s five finalists were announced Monday by the group that oversees the Bob Cousy Award.
All of the final nominees, from Florida’s Walter Clayton Jr. to Tennessee’s Zakai Zeigler, are talented guards who are key parts of their team’s offense. All have had great seasons. But none of them have had a season comparable to Gonzaga’s Ryan Nembhard. Not as a point guard.
Yes, the point guard’s role has evolved since Cousy defined it at Holy Cross College and with the Boston Celtics. It’s more of a scoring position than it ever has been (though Robertson excelled at that aspect long ago). But, at its core, the position’s focus is still what it has been since Cousy’s day.
Get the ball in the basket. Anyhow, anyway.
Most times it’s about setting up teammates. After all, there are four of them on the court at all times. Making sure they are in the best position to score and receive the ball in the right spot at the right time.
Other times, when needed, a point guard has to score as well. Again, at the right time. There is no better example of a team-first position in the ultimate team-first game. And there is no one better in college basketball this season at that then Nembhard. How do I know? Numbers. Ones that don’t lie.
The basic one is assists. An assist is a pass that leads to a basket, which is the goal of every possession of every offense every day. And no one, not just on the Cousy finalist list, is better at it than Nembhard.
His 311 assists in 31 games are tops in the nation – by a wide margin. Heck, it’s only 20 away from the top five in the NCAA all-time record book.
Second on that list this season, with 251? That would be Purdue’s Braden Smith, who is, not surprisingly, one of the five Cousy finalists. Ziegler is also in the NCAA top 50, with 201. The other three finalists? None have more than half of Nembhard’s total.
But assists aren’t the be-all and end-all of the position, sure. Leadership is a big part of it, though hard to quantify. Won-loss record reflects it some – all five finalists play for teams ranked in the top 20 – but the best one is offensive efficiency. Does the point guard do his job and ensures his team scores as many points as possible?
Mark Sears’ Alabama team does that. It is third in Ken Pomeroy’s offensive efficiency ratings. So does Florida (fourth) with Clayton in charge. Then there is Gonzaga, seventh in the rating. Above Purdue (10th), Tennessee (27th) and Kam Jone’s Marquette group (30th).
Want a harder/faster number? How about points per game? Alabama is No. 1, at 91. Second? Gonzaga, 87.6.
Part of that is the Zags don’t turn the ball over much. The reason? Nembhard takes care of it, with an assist-to-turnover ratio of 4.26, second-best nationally.
But it’s also a point guard’s responsibility to score these days. Of the finalists, only Sears is in the NCAA’s top 50 (at 38th), with a 19.1 average. Nembhard? He is at 10.9, well below the finalists (Tennessee’s Ziegler is closest at 13.7).
Sure, there is also a defensive element to this. Zeigler is a standout, the SEC’s defensive player of the year last season. So is Clayton. The others – and you could include Nembhard in this category – are on the court for their offense.
Add it up and none of the five finalists epitomize Cousy’s legacy better than the second-best point guard in Gonzaga’s deep history at the position.
But not one of the nation’s five best? Could it be the Zags’ “mediocre” 23-8 season, one that began with Final Four hopes seemingly derailed by too-many close losses, has a bearing?
Heck ya. In fact, that has to be the only reason. Put Nembhard’s stats next to Clayton’s name and the Gator leader is chomping on the trophy already. Same with the other four finalists.
And yet it’s a season like Nembhard is having that defines the position. And has since Cousy’s time. But not, it seems, to the committee that picks Cousy’s award.
•••
WSU: Around the (current, old and future) Pac-12 and the nation, Jon Wilner decided to compare the old Pac-12 with the future Pac-12 and the future Mountain West in the Mercury News this morning. … He has his Best of the West men’s rankings there too. … Arizona is near the top, though the Wildcats have fallen in the polls and have a tough one tonight at home, against Arizona State. Why is that tough? Rivalry game on Senior Night? Sure. … UCLA is also one of Wilner’s best, but the Bruins didn’t look like it during the final minutes of a road win over Northwestern. … Oregon, another of Wilner’s best, faces Indiana tonight. … Here is a name for Utah. … The Mountain West regular season finishes up tonight with the best matchup San Diego State facing UNLV in the desert. … Colorado State should roll (San Jose State), as should Boise State (Air Force). … Utah State is done and didn’t end well. … In football news, John Canzano has his Monday mailbag. … Could the SEC finally go to nine conference games? … Oregon State is ready to start spring practice, though not everyone is available. … Is USC a sleeping giant? Maybe, but how does that program ever sleep? It has too many resources. … Deion Sanders still doesn’t recruit on the road but Colorado is doing things a bit differently these days. … Arizona and Nike are still partners. … Boise State’s Ashton Jeanty had a favorite interview in Indianapolis.
Gonzaga: Did the past week’s results show what’s ahead for the Zags? Maybe. Jim Meehan has no maybes in his story about how important it was the team, however. … Theo Lawson has Nembhard news, in two forms. … Former GU standout Kelly Olynyk has a great attitude about the NBA and its constant change. … We linked this Wilner column in the Mercury News. His interview with WCC commissioner Stu Jackson ran in the S-R today. … One last thought. The Zags may not be ranked. They may not have won the WCC regular season title. But their numbers, from the NCAA’s NET ranking (eighth) to Ken Pomeroy’s (same), stay strong. Final Four strong. Others feel the Bulldogs could still reach that preseason projection.
EWU: The Eagles regular season came to end last night, with the women defeating Montana 80-77 in Cheney and the men losing 83-72 to the Big Sky co-champs in Missoula. … Elsewhere in the Big Sky, with the regular season done, the Starch Madness pairings are set for the women and men. … Idaho State’s men and women fell to Northern Arizona. … Northern Colorado’s men claimed the top seed with a road win over Weber State.
Idaho: The women’s Senior Night didn’t end as the Vandals hoped, as conference champ Montana State rolled 67-54 in Moscow. Peter Harriman has the coverage, which includes the men’s loss in Bozeman.
Whitworth: Nope. No NCAA Division III playoff berth for the Pirate men. We saw it coming. And wrote about it yesterday.
Mariners: There are three Hall of Famers in the M’s camp currently. Yes, Ken Griffey Jr. is in town. … Seattle pounded out another win Monday. … The story about Colt Emerson’s at-bat? It ran in the S-R today. … Injuries can derail anyone. … Should Pete Rose be reinstated? Yes. It was a lifetime ban after all. … This Athletic ranking of the best franchises in the past 25 years has the M’s near the bottom. Rightfully so.
Seahawks: Matt Calkins’ column about the needed improvement in the trenches is on the S-R site. … As is Bob Condotta’s story on the upcoming week. … So long Jimmy Johnson. The Fox commentator is retiring at 81.
Kraken: What type of changes could hit the roster in the next few days? … Philipp Grubauer spent a little time talking about his stint in the minors.
•••
• College hoops is becoming more and more of a position-less game. Not everywhere, though. Not at Gonzaga. Mark Few’s team still has defined offensive roles. And no one performs his role better than Nembhard. Until later …